Laziness at NY radio stations?

[Lee Linwood]

I’m listening to Gary Goldberg’s financial infomercial on am970 during which he refers to his WOR listeners and later I’m listening to the weight-loss infomercial on WABC in which they say it is the beginning of summer. Does the mgmt of these stations even listen to what goes over their airwaves or are they simply too lazy?

 

[TheBigA]

Once again you're making a generalization about all of NYC radio, based on your experience with the lowest rated stations in town. Low ratings mean no money. No money means no staff. This infomercial is a paid program. The company that pays for the airtime is really responsible here. They gave the station a show that's dated, and the station provided the service it was contracted to do. Yes it's dated, and yes that reflects badly on the station, but why are you only blaming the station? Doesn't the client deserve some blame?

Let's say for purpose of discussion that someone at the station knew about these issues. What do you want them to do? Not run the program? That's not an option. Perhaps the situation is it aired because the contract required it, the mistakes were noted, and those mistakes will be conveyed to the clients on Monday. Sounds like proper business procedure to me. If you hear the same program next week, then maybe it's a problem. Until then, give the station a chance to react. Isn't that fair?

 

[umfan]

Presumably, WABC airs a disclaimer before both of these shows noting that the station is not responsible for the content of the following programs (infomercials).

While WABC is not the highest rated in the market, neither are they in the cellar or the 'lowest rated station(s) in town'.

 

[TheBigA]

While WABC is not the highest rated in the market, neither are they in the cellar or the 'lowest rated station(s) in town'.

Therre were two stations mentioned in the OP. The other is AM970. While the station doesn't subscribe to the ratings, we know it is lower than WABC.

 

[wadio]

We live in an age where laziness and sloppiness are accepted. Most software you buy isn't really finished and radio stations run outdated stuff all the time - stale weather forecasts for example in addition to the things mentioned by the OP. If the public doesn't care, why should the providers, I suppose. What I don't get is why people feel the need to defend the sloppiness.

 

[MarcB]

Computers are only as smart as the people who program them. Our Oldies station up here in the Hartford, Connecticut area ran a dead carrier for an hour yesterday instead of The Wolfman Jack Show. Either the person who uploads stuff to the computer forgot to program in an episode of Wolfman Jack or the file was corrupt.

 

[Silkie]

I’m listening to Gary Goldberg’s financial infomercial on am970 during which he refers to his WOR listeners and later I’m listening to the weight-loss infomercial on WABC in which they say it is the beginning of summer. Does the mgmt of these stations even listen to what goes over their airwaves or are they simply too lazy?

Laziness seems to be a trend in certain parts of society, unless it is an inability to think because it is all siliconized.

 

[TheBigA]

We live in an age where laziness and sloppiness are accepted.

I disagree. If those incidents happened at stations where I worked, it would have been reported by the BO, and discussed in our dept head conference on Monday morning, Phone calls to the show producers would have been made, and action taken. I expect that's what happened at at least one of those two stations. Laziness and sloppiness are NOT accepted. People get fired all the time in radio. Ad a lot of them never get jobs in radio again, especially if they choose to remain in the same market.

 

[TriangleTriadMediaNews]

I recall reading here a few years ago that a radio station in Raleigh accidentally aired a traffic report for Charlotte during morning drive.